World Repression Newswire Archive

The big democracy (The UN General Assembly), little clique (the Security Council) and the ultimate democracy (millions of people around the world) opposed the invasion of Iraq with tragic failure!

LISTEN TO AN AUDIO ROUND UP OF SOME EVENTS IN PALESTINE TODAY.

On the 24th of May the Israeli army invaded the West Bank city of Ramallah, my current home. In the middle of the day, undercover Israeli forces performed an “arrest operation” on a Palestinian militant in the centre of Ramallah. When their cover was blown, a large force of Israeli soldiers were sent in so that they could shoot their way out of the city past the angry crowds of Palestinians that had assembled. The Palestinian fighters were, for the most part, nowhere to be seen during the invasion. It was left to crowds of youths to defend the city from this act of aggression, using whatever came to hand. Stones, tins of paint, scrap metal - all of it was thrown at the soldier’s jeeps from the rooftops of Ramallah. In the course of events, the Israeli army martyred three civilians and one Policeman (who was apparently unarmed at the time) and injured about thirty others, shooting rubber-coated and live ammunition at the crowds of civilians. In this act of war, Israel violated the entirely one-way ceasefire that Hamas and all the other armed Palestinian factions (apart from Islamic Jihad) had been sticking to since February 2005, despite regular Israeli military operations and killings in the Palestinian territories.

A new wave off arrests in Turkmenistan sparks fear of a further crackdown on civil society under one of the world's most oppressive regimes.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock issued a media release last week welcoming the passage of the ASIO Legislation Amendment Bill 2006. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s (ASIO) “questioning and detention powers will continue for the next decade,” he declared.

''All records of my tenure as governor of Texas, the records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies, and all records from meetings that I, or my Vice President, attended regarding public energy policy, are now in my father's library, sealed and not available for public view.''

We are writing to you from the Basque Observatory for Human Rights –Behatokia- to let you know that our latest bulletin is now available on our web page,  http://www.behatokia.info/bulletin.php

If you would like to access the bulletin directly, in a compressed pdf format please use this link:

 http://www.behatokia.info/docs/boletinak/Islada240506eng.zip

Bob’s barrister nudged him in the ribs as a signal to stand. The jury had returned with its verdict. Bob anticipated their decision as one would an echo – guilty as charged! The Judge shifted into automatic and delivered the sentence – three years with not less than twelve months to be served for his third offence, possession of marijuana.

Action Alert from the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA)

In late May, the 200,000 member strong Ontario chapter of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) approved Resolution 50 supporting a growing global campaign initiated on July 9, 2005 by over 170 Palestinian organizations, including the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid.

Palestine Today a service of the International Middle East Media centre, www.imemc.org for Wednesday June 21st, 2006

Troops invade Nablus and Beit Ilma refugee camp, killing one and injuring two, Three children dead and ten wounded in Israeli air strike in crowded refugee camp Tuesday. Al Quds Brigades launches projectiles at Sderot and Nahal Oz Tuesday evening, Rafah crossing closed after European observers failed to come to work. Israeli Army breaks into two Hebron charitable societies, confiscates and destroys some of its contents

Those stores and more coming up stay tuned.

Since 2001, the government has seized upon the “war” declared by US President George Bush for both domestic and international purposes. Under the guise of combating terrorism it has participated in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, diverted attention from mounting economic and social problems at home and legitimised previously unthinkable police state-style measures, including semi-secret trials, “preventative” detention and the ability to impose life sentences without any evidence of an actual terrorist act.

The killing of two American soldiers captured by insurgents at a roadblock south of Baghdad will be seized upon by Washington as justification for an intensified bloodbath against the Iraqi people.
Well before the discovery of the bodies of the young soldiers, reportedly bearing the marks of torture and mutilation, there were already mounting indications that the Bush White House and the Pentagon were implementing a shift in military tactics that spells a dramatic escalation of US violence in the occupied country.
The mass media, which has shown little inclination to highlight the daily death toll of American troops, now totaling over 2,500—much less the far greater toll of Iraqi dead, estimated in the hundreds of thousands—has exhibited keen interest in the fate of the two executed enlisted men, including gruesome details of their deaths. Their aim is to whip up an atmosphere of hatred and revenge against the Iraqi population.

Neither Horta nor his Australian backers want to test this “tremendous support” at elections due next year. “The problem is, obviously, can the country afford the next six months, the next nine months of this continued pressure on the prime minister to resign?” Horta asked. “Can we afford this increasing loss of credibility of the government and the poor image of the country? Or should the prime minister say, ‘Well, I step aside in the interests of my own party. It seems that I am a liability to my own party, if not the country’.” The threat of criminal charges is obviously designed to compel Alkatiri to make that decision.

(I think we should point out that both the writer and the victim of these dreadful incidents have been Oxford residents for the last few years, so it is legitimate for them to publish to Oxford Indymedia. eileen)
Necati was raped and tortured by Greek coastguards on the island of Crete in 2001, while an immigration detainee. Today, 5 years after the event, 5 men found guilty in 2004 (though charged with lesser crimes of abuse and sexual assault) remain in uniform. An appeal that we understand will see their acquittal today takes place in the absence of Necati and in the absence of his evidence. Necati's letters to the court have been ignored, and his attempt to telephone the court revealed astonishing bias in favour of the guilty coastguard officers. such is justice in Greece. The Prime Minister's office and the President's office have so far declined to comment.

Turkmenistan is one of the world's most repressive regimes. Recently press attention has fallen on the increased EU trade with the country- in the form of Gas and Textile imports. The Turkmen regime's response has been another crackdown on human rights workers in the country. Many have been arrested on spurious charges and are being held, and tortured, in Turkmen prisons.

As the judge presiding over the case of Rodrigo, Alex and Juan (the 4Feb prisoners) in Barcelona continues to deny them bail and to allow evidence from the defense, the prisoners commenced a hunger strike today, monday 19th June.

Palestine Today a service of the International Middle East Media centre, www.imemc.org for Wednesday June 19th, 2006

Israeli Army arrests two brothers from Bethlehem arrests five residents returning home at military checkpoint near Rammallah, jenin and nablus invaded and mother of three arrested and disappeared

Those stores and more coming up stay tuned.

NEW YORK The Washington Post has obtained a cable, marked "sensitive," that it says show that just before President Bush left on a surprise trip last Monday to the Green Zone in Baghdad for an upbeat assessment of the situation there, "the U.S. Embassy in Iraq painted a starkly different portrait of increasing danger and hardship faced by its Iraqi employees."

Meanwhile, the world looks on, wondering how a country claiming to be "democratic" can so ignore the will of its people, and pursue policies pushed through by a relatively small group of criminal Extremists, with loyalties elsewhere ...

Israel "new" Government continues Zionism's long tradition of Ethnic Cleansing.